The Children from Fifty Years Ago

"Don't touch the metal box yet."

Yorki braced himself against the broken footing, as seawater bubbled up from the crack.

"They'll initiate the Receipt as soon as they hear any noise."

Lin Qi asked, "You didn't know there was something down there before?"

"When the ship was towed to Impel Down, I was already locked in the hold and hadn't seen the outside world for fifty years."

Zero listened to several rounds of tapping.

"Not a response from a living person."

Chopper asked, "Can you confirm?"

"Each interval is the same; it's impossible for a living person to maintain the same rhythm for fifty years."

Yorki bent down and approached the crack.

The children's voices came from inside the metal box.

"Has the captain returned?"

"Has the captain returned?"

"Has the captain returned?"

Every sentence is the same, even the breathing positions are unchanged.

Robin found the original specifications for the Return Voyage Project.

The children were required to memorize specific questions to verify their identities as returning pirates.

When the project ended, their questions were not released; they were all sealed away in an old iron box.

Yorki lifted his foot and stepped on the edge of the crack.

"Don't let them ask anymore."

"The record needs to be copied first."

"Even if you copy it, they'll keep asking."

Unanswered, he walked around the outer layer of the iron box.

[Missing target of expression]

[Questioner missing]

[Questioner's identity missing]

Lin Qi integrated Brook and Yorki's survival records.

"The captain is back now."

The Throne immediately attempted to establish Receipt.

[Returning member Yorki has been confirmed]

[Please have the person you are replacing complete the identity handover.]

"Refuse to hand over."

Yorki said through the rift, "I'll only answer their questions."

"Has the captain returned?"

"You're back."

The recording, which had been repeated for fifty years, stopped for a moment.

A second problem then arose.

Will you take us with you?

Yorki looked toward the rescue entrance.

"Meeting."

[Receipt progress 20%]

Nami immediately stopped her.

"Don't continue answering; it interprets 'take away' as 'receive.'"

Yorki asked, "Then what do we do, keep them locked in the box?"

"Let's detach the questions from the project first."

Robin pulled up the source page for those dozen or so children.

Their names were all scratched off, leaving only the pirate crew markings they were waiting for.

After Yorki rescued three children, the project designated the remaining children as replacement failures and terminated the program on the same day.

The cause of death was listed as "Receipt".

Chopper looked at that column.

"How could the fact that no one came to pick him up be the cause of death?"

"Supply and Receipt are linked."

Mo'er replied, "They won't give us food if no one comes."

Mira put the water glass back on the table.

"Same as the witness project."

Lin Qi copied Mira's rescue rules into the iron box.

[Supply must not be linked to the identity of the person Receipt]

[Failure to be accepted cannot be considered as grounds for liability for death]

[The child's question does not constitute consent to the handover]

The Navy Seat was confirmed by Akainu, followed closely by the Revolutionary Army Seat.

When Makino wrote down her reasons for Civilian Witness Seat, she stopped at the name column.

"How can it be protected if it doesn't even have a name?"

Yorki searched through the ship's doctor's records.

"Those three children I rescued remember their companion's nickname."

The descendants of the Church sent over a burnt old book, the first few pages of which recorded the names they repeatedly used when they were first brought back.

Little Stone, A-Yuan, the one wearing a hat, the Crybaby, the Stern, and the Blue Shoes.

The names are scattered and the numbers don't match.

Robin filled them all into the temporary identification page.

"Leave Blanks for missing elements; do not force matching."

The repetitive sounds inside the metal box gradually separated.

Some people asked if the captain would return, some said they had waited for the wrong ship, and one child repeatedly emphasized that the person he was waiting for had never been a captain.

Yorki sat down beside the crack.

"Back then, I only opened one door."

He read out the nicknames in the Church book to them one by one.

"The three survivors haven't forgotten you."

The Receipt progress on the metal box has started to regress.

The Throne attempted to maintain contact with Yorki's response.

Yorki promised to take it away.

Yorki took a piece of the fallen plank and wrote on it.

[Leave with you] refers to leaving the metal box.

[We will not take over names, will not act on behalf of family members, and will not demand repayment.]

Makino pressed down on the Civilian Witness Seats.

"This sentence should be retained."

The remaining seats were confirmed one after another, and the Return Voyage Project was finally removed from the child's record.

The metal box opened a crack on its own.

There was no body inside, only twelve pairs of rotten little shoes surrounding a Den Den Mushi that had long since stopped functioning.

Chopper lowered his head and rummaged through the medicine box, saying nothing more.

Yorki couldn't reach the iron box, so he could only push the plank with the promise written on it through the crack.

"Follow the record first. I'll find you a place after I get out."

Zixuan receiving point.

Six of them went to the island where the Church was located, while the remaining six were left in separate files, no longer waiting for any pirates to return.

When the last document was left, the official Detention Order for the Old Ship was revealed at the bottom of the box.

[The Yorki Destruction Return Voyage Project: Permanent Isolation]

[Deal Requirements: Stay alive, do not release]

Akainu finished reading the Detention Order.

"There was no trial, no sentence, and not even the name of the person who signed it."

Dragon said, "The issuing seal is a facility directly under the Five Elders."

The Navy does not recognize the Detention Order.

Magellan also signed the rescue page.

"Impel Down will no longer enforce unregistered incarceration."

With the Detention Order losing enforcement channels from both sides, the word "permanent" began to fade.

The fourth anchor chain was cut.

The Old Ship was raised to a sufficient position, and the underwater rescue team entered through the breach in the hull.

Upon Yorki moved his body closer to the wall.

"Let's make this clear first, don't lift me up."

Chopper asked, "You can still walk?"

She can walk while holding onto something.

The rescue hatch opened, and seawater rushed into the outer compartment.

Two Jailers passed through the waterproof cloth and saw the old man who had been imprisoned for fifty years for the first time.

Yorki had lost almost all of his hair; his old coat was patched up for a dozen dollars; at his feet were a drainage pump, a food delivery pedal, and a metal box containing the ship's doctor's records.

He tried to stand up, but his knees wouldn't cooperate, and he sat back down.

"The floor is slippery."

Magellan didn't expose him.

"The stretcher is at the door; you can decide whether or not to use it."

Yorki stood up for the second time, holding onto the drainage pump, and took a half step forward, but his shoe got caught on the broken chain.

This time he didn't try to be brave.

"Bring the stretcher."

The Jailer brought the stretcher closer, and after Yorki sat on it, he still held the iron box.

The Throne activates the pirate identity verification as the rescue team prepares to evacuate.

[Yorki, former captain of the Rumbar Pirates]

[Bounty hunter status restored]

Leaving the quarantine area is considered an escape.

Yorki looked at Magellan's Den Den Mushi.

"Warden of prisons, are you going to arrest him or not?"

"Impel Down only holds prisoners who have been legally transferred."

The bounty from back then is still up.

Akainu opened the Navy Records.

"The charges of rescuing seventeen traffickers have been dropped; the resistance to arrest occurred during illegal detention; the remaining charges of flying pirate flags and ordinary robbery require re-verification."

How long does the verification take?

"After you receive treatment."

Yorki waved to the screen where Brook was located.

"Did you hear me? I can't get out for now."

Brook picked up the violin.

"Then I'll go to Impel Down to see you."

Where are you now?

"Maritime."

How far is it from Impel Down?

Nami reported the flight path.

Yorki calculated for a moment.

"Too slow."

You can go to Twin Capes first.

"With all these ailments, which ship would be willing to take me on?"

Communication access to the Whitebeard Pirates.

Marco has already arranged for a hospital ship.

"We'll take it."

Boa Hancock also provided the Kuja route.

"The Calm Belt is escorted by Kuja."

Buggy then spoke up.

"I'll handle the letters and files; the expenses will be on Straw Hat Boy's tab."

Luffy shouted, "Why is it on my tab?"

"Because they are your crew members."

Yorki sat on the stretcher, watching the confirmation messages being received one by one, and finally stopped making excuses.

"Then let's go to Twin Capes."

Crocus turned the Den Den Mushi towards Laboon.

"Tell it yourself."

Yorki opened his mouth several times towards the other end.

He had prepared an explanation for fifty years, but in the end, he only asked one question.

"Laboon, do you still recognize me?"

The whale's cry traveled across the sea surface and reached the Old Ship on the seabed.

Laboon nudged the lighthouse with his head and didn't crash into the Red Line again.

Yorki coughed with a laugh.

"You've grown so much."

The rescue team lifted the stretcher and stepped out of the Old Ship.

As his feet left the hold, all fifty engravings on the wall lit up.

The top line is from his first year of imprisonment.

[I'll go back once I'm better.]

The bottom line has just appeared.

[Going back today]